A Free Trade Area with Mexico

The United States is immediately facing decisions on extending the current free trade area with Canada to Mexico and quite possibly to other Latin American countries. This article attempts to assess the economic basis, if any, for the objections that organized labor has raised to a free trade area with Mexico and other countries in the hemisphere. It is intended as a challenge to economists who support labor's position. Economic analyses undertaken to date conclude that a North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) is in labor's interest generally, although not necessarily in the interests of workers in some import-sensitive industries. Labor's proponents are unconvinced, but they have failed to provide theoretical or empirical analyses that support their position. While a variety of scenarios have been considered by economists analyzing a NAFTA, the consensus on employment impact converges on an estimate of a net increase of more than 60,000 U.S. jobs. Most studies also estimate small positive impacts on U.S. total wages and substantially expanded Mexican employment

Economics · Free trade · Free trade agreement · International economics · International free trade agreement · International trade · Labour economics · Latin Americans · Political science · Position (finance · Trade barrier · Variety (cybernetics · Economic Zones and Regional Development · Finance · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Global trade and economics · Law

• Nafta in Transition

  Stephen J Randall•Canadian Review of American Studies•1997

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• The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

  Open Access•Sidney Ditzion, Robert Jay Lifton et al.•American Quarterly•1969

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